YouSaid · the spoken record

Ronnen Harary

lines on the record: 93
first: 2021-12-20
most recent: 2021-12-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think we're lucky that we found each other. I think we're lucky the people that decided to join our company, the people that we've been able to attract and partner with and people that wanted to take the journey with us, whether it was Bakugan or Paw Patrol and these partnerships, I think that's where the luck came in. And then we put in the time. You know, I have a saying, you don't go, you don't get. And we went out a lot. Anton, like, you know, he opened up all the offices in Europe. He did all the sales with all the retailers, managed all those relationships. Ben was constantly going out, meeting with the inventors, going to their offices, doing inventor trips. We did all that stuff. And the last thing I'd say is that we never blamed anybody for failure because it's too complex in our business. There's too many stakeholders when you're doing creative things that you can blame one single person. So for sure, listen, the universe works in strange ways, and a lot of it is out of our control.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, that actually wasn't 100% the thing. It was the COCO model that Anton and I had and Ben, it traditionally is not a good model. So it's incredible that it lasted this long. And one of our biggest goals is for this business to live beyond the founders. And so this was part of the transition plan to enable that to happen. So we're very much connected to the business and engaged and want to guide and shepherd it into the future. We'll just guide and shepherd it differently.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's entertainment. That's the essence of the entertainment business. I mean, the way you describe it, it sounds like exhausting. Yeah, it does. But I think at the same time, you know, the flip side is that it's exciting. It's exciting to work on new and fresh and to design stuff and to create stuff. And I think the creation process is where the magic is. Sometimes I wish we were just like a one product company or one idea. But I think it would actually be boring if we just, it was just one product and that was it.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have a whole activity part of our business, which is Etchasketch. We also diversified into the games business. So that's very stable reoccurring revenue. We bought a company called Cardinal in 2015. So we're the largest manufacturer of puzzles and chess sets and poker chips and all that type of stuff.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's significant that being said after what happened in the downturn years, we became very conscious on diversifying our revenue. And so we went out and we bought a company called Swimways, which specializes in the pool.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it really wasn't the real decision why it went public was to actually set the company up for success in the future. We felt that for the company to outlive the founders, it's best for the company to be in a public construct rather than a private company. It was like we knew we were getting a little bit older. Who knows what happens in the future? And as an entity, it's not reliant on three shareholders at the end of the day.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so they're relevant and they're timely. And I think that, you know, stuff other franchises, they just didn't keep things fresh. And kids, they can sense it. So I think that we're following that model.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think a lot of it has to do with keeping them relevant. You know, if you look at, let's say, like Franchis like Spider-Man, they're always doing movies and they're taking risks with their movies. You look at Transformers. They did films and they were really innovative with their films.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. It is Once in a lifetime, once in a generation franchise that has exceeded all expectations and it's something that we've worked towards. Originally we had Paul for five, then we had Pa for 10, we're coming on the 10th anniversary, and now we have a motto which is PA forever. Our job is to just keep it fresh, exciting. We just came up with the movie, came out this past. So that was a milestone for Paw Patrol. We're going to do another film in 2023. We want Paw Patrol to be around for 100 years. It's our Mickey Mouse.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep, yep, you're exactly right. I mean, that's the magic when you have a character that kids love and trust and can relate to, then they'll want to spend time with them in different form factors. So it definitely helped turn around the business.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's what we landed on. We were like. Saw it as having incredible story potential, incredible character potential. And then we said, well, how do we figure out the transformation? And we said, well, it'd be magical if we put backpacks on the pups and the backpacks transformed. And what if their doghouses transformed into vehicles? And that's how we married it up. So we had the transformation plus great story, good character. That stuff next together, and we were like, let's move, let's try.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So his idea was it was called Robbie and the Rescue Pups. And it was this idea of these five dogs that each had their own personality. One was a fire dog, one was another construction dog, another one was a police dog. And they go out and they solve difficult situations that happen in the town.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's an incredible demo for toys, very steady demo for toys. And no one had ever done anything with that play pattern for that demographic. So we put out this brief. Can you come up with a conceit or a story around transformation for preschoolers? We sent it to five different creatives around the world and we got back a whole bunch of interesting proposals. And the one that we like best came from the creator of Bob the Builder's name is Keith Chapman, an incredible human being. And he came up with this great idea.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I think one of the things that dawned us is very hard to get success in the same genre more than once. So why don't we take focus on the preschool category? And we were like, well, why don't we do a show for preschoolers? And we said, what if we took the magical aspects of transformation that kids loved in Bakugan and they love in transformers? And why don't we bring it to a preschool audience?”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah, yeah, amongst the founders came out inefficiencies in the business, the way we're organized. Everything came out, but I don't think that anybody was in a panic. It was more of like, this is not easy. And this is why older people have gray hair. When people say they have gray hair from something, like this was our seminal gray hair event.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I don't think I wasn't nervous. Actually, personally myself, I rise in a crisis and I'm actually better in a crisis. That being said, I mean, the relationship's definitely frayed. We have a saying, you know, I'm sure you know this, like growth hides a multitude of sins. And when you're not growing, all the synths come out. So everything came out. Our relationships got challenged and tested, you know.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We just got really focused. The one thing we didn't do is we didn't cut our RD budget. We kept that And we kept on spending and we kept on investing. And we were like, let's keep on trying. Let's keep on trying with new television shows. Let's keep on trying with new toys. And we'll just be a smaller company, but let's just be a profitable company.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I will say that we really was the time where we actually dug in and were like, we need to tighten our marketing. We need to reduce our skew count. We need to do as many things financially. We actually had no choice because in those two years, the company lost money and substantial amounts of money. So there really wasn't any options but to write the ship.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we've never done it before. It was an excruciating process, and we did it four times for restructurings, just because no one really wants to believe that the sales are going to go down. And so when we did the restructuring, everybody was like, you know, we don't need to let go of that many people. You know, the sales are going to pick up, et cetera, et cetera. And it just never happened. So it was like, it kept on jerking in the whole company. Every single time you had to go out and make an announcement and make people feel comfortable and the company's okay. So when you do it four times, you lose a lot of credibility and it's hard to keep the morale high.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Had so many hits and we had so much success, and everybody gets excited, so we had to become much more judicious in the product selection. And then on the flip side, we had to restructure the company. At that point in time, I think we had about 900 employees and we had to let go 350 people in a matter of 24 months. A third of the people”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Had to do two things we had to lean into developing and really keying in on what are the right categories, what are the right products that we should be launching.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's actually natural those types of toys have a certain life cycle to them and they're usually it's a three or four year life cycle and then they actually go down so by 2013 we weren't we actually retired Bakugan so it went from like hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sales to”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“didn't connect with the consumer. Basically, the product line just wasn't robust. That was following up Bakugan. We didn't think Bakugan would drop in sales as quickly as it did.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's exactly what happened. So basically, in 2011, the sales started to go down. And so basically our sales went from 2010. I think we peaked at about 950 million. And then by 2013, the sales were down to 500 million.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We actually had our best years in 2008, 2009 during the recession. So we didn't really feel anything. Parents are not going to cut on, they're going to cut on their kids last. In terms of consumer expenses and stuff like that, it's quite recession proof. The flip side of the toy industry is not a high growth industry, but it's just very stable.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that was one of our goals was to have an entertainment division. And Buckagun was a genesis for it. And then after Buckagon, we launched a show called Redekai, which was based on this really innovative card system that we created. Everybody was excited about it. All the retailers bought into it. And it was a huge disaster. Like, you could not give the product away. It probably took the retailers like two, three years to actually clear out the products.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, we can't billion dollar franchise at Eriden literally 150 countries around the world. We did four seasons over 200 episodes. It just captured the hearts and minds of kids.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would say it's a way to actually accentuate the magic of the toy and it enhances the toy because how are you going to know the characters of the Bakugan unless you can see them? On the screen and hear them talk and see how they battle and how they work and all that type of stuff.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I mean, when we license a product, it had two elements it had the marble and it had an action figure in a marble. So those were the two play patterns with a really, really cool magical sensation. Like when it popped open, like you got excited. And then your ability to close it was automatic. Like you just took your two fingers and it closed. So there was like, it was very fidgety in terms of opening and closing and opening and closing.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, exactly. But his history was he was an incredible toy inventor and a real true blue toy guy. So he saw the magic and he saw the potential. He said, sure, we'll partner with you guys.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it actually came. Aldrick invented the item. So his genius was the idea to put an action figure into a marble. And we took it in. We did a whole bunch of development. And then what happened was we said, well, in Japan, they're so good with these micro mechanisms. Maybe we can partner with someone in Japan. So we did a trip over there and we took it to Sega Toys and we presented it to Mr. Cocobun, who doesn't speak a stitch of English”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And embedded in the card is a sheet of metal. But as soon as the ball hits the card, the magnet inside of the ball activates a spring and then pops open and transforms the character, the ball into a character.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was like marble's meats transformers. So there were these marbles and that you roll them at table and you're aiming towards the card.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I haven't eaten a lot of candy, but I think they like they're just into doing different, they're good with different.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I just think that their minds are very open and I think they just look at the world very differently and they look at things differently and what would be strange to us is normal to them. Like when you think about the Tamagachi, like what a unique toy to come up with. You look at something like Ampabonnet. I don't know if you've ever seen the preschool show Pampam It's one of the strangest characters you've ever seen in your life. You know, so it's like”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's one of the most creative places you can go. But it is probably very seminal to the journey the company has taken. We actually went there with a mission in hand, which was to try to find products in Japan that we could bring to North America.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, because I mean, the flick tricks were going right up against Mattel. It was going up against hot wheels. We have no problems competing with Hasbro and Mattel. We always respected them and learned from them, but we actually had no choice. If you wanted to be in the toy industry, those were the players that you were competing against.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was a small fashion dolls, and you can change their clothes in a unique way, and they came in these purses that you can carry them around with. And when it came to keycharm cuties, this really, we were up against Mattel and their marketing and their design. And our design couldn't compete. Like our dolls didn't look as nice as theirs. Our packaging wasn't as good. Our commercial wasn't as good. We didn't have the brand. We didn't have enough money to develop a brand. So that was our first lesson against the big guys.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, it's interesting for you to go that far back in time, but I guess I would say in the last 100 years, like the play patterns started to solidify. There's 11 categories in toys. So you got plush, which is stuffed animals. Like there's a way for kids to interact with plush. And then like you say, action figures. How do you play? You know, action figures is all about fantasy and trying to become that character yourself. Yeah. So, the toy companies creatively were able to create around the way kids like to interact. And so now it's like, can you bring something new and different to the play pattern to spark joy in the kids to get them excited? And that's what we look for all the time.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not really. I mean, you can get some false positives too. I mean, kids get excited about a lot of stuff. You can see if kids are really bored. You can probably see if they really don't like something. But then again, it's like what's valuable is more like, is it too big for their hands? Is it too small for their hands? Can they hold it? That type of stuff. More functionality But testing the magic, very difficult. The only way you're going to test is by putting it at retail”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Kids still play and collect hot wheels today. And so the association was well, this is kind of similar to hot wheels, this die cast. There's a collectible aspect to it. We went out, we licensed all the BMX bike companies at the time like Hoffman and Redline and all that type of stuff. So you can collect them. You can play with them. So there was an association and a confidence in the play pattern”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You cannot consult yourself in the toy industry. It is one of the most intuitive creative industries out there. It's a feel industry, but it's also a history industry. Like, you need to know what happened in the past, what did well, what didn't do well. And then it's very iterative. Like everybody's adding on an innovation from the past and everybody's looking for play patterns. So, it's all about the play pattern and stuff like that. So, you know, kids played with diecast cars.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And then the one thing you have to understand about inventors. And the reason why you want to go visit the inventors rather than them coming to you is like they're really the kids in the equation. And when they invent something, they want to show it. They get so excited about it. So on one of my trips to Chicago when we were developing the air hogs, Jeff actually showed me the little flick tricks. And straight away, I was like, this is so much fun.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, sometimes there are certain products that I loved and I would win Ben over, but he wouldn't come very easily. But the one thing that we did find over the years is that when we did have universal consensus, the likelihood of success was much higher.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, because we had some other products that, alongside air hogs that failed. We had a product called Don't Free Freddy, and it did not do well. It was basically a little furry monster and his hands were handcuffed together and then you press a button and the handcuffs would pop open and his arms would flip up and he would roar at you. And we just thought it was funny. Yeah.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Literally go from city to city to city and visit the inventors and go to their offices. And I'd say that was like 80% of the work was done that way on location.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it wasn't that much fun in games. It was serious. First of all, toy business is very competitive, hyper competitive business, and it's a very fast-paced. And, you know, the three of us wanted to win. So we were actually quite serious. I think we were probably too serious. We didn't have the foozeball tables. We didn't have the pool tables. It was more about when we're in the office, let's do the work and then let's go enjoy our time afterwards. It's intense. The other thing about the toy industry is that you're dealing with kids and you're dealing with safety and you got to make sure that everything's got to manufacture something at a low cost that's safe, that has an innovation attached to it.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Toy business is all about fresh and new, even if you have a brand within the brand, you still need to bring fresh and new. So we knew straight away after our first product, we were like, okay, what other innovation can we do in flying toys? So we came up with the V-Wing, which was like a stealth flying plane. And then we were thinking about other types of flying toys. So yes, you always have to be innovating within the brand. And then we also wanted to diversify as a company. So we were thinking about what other categories can we get ourselves into.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah. I mean, the engineering development was a priceless education, designing and developing and marketing that product was priceless. It was so difficult. We taught ourselves everything. We hadn't done anything close to that. It's not really even a toy. It's a mechanical flying object. So we really stretched ourselves to actually get that to market. But the nice part was all the inventors that we were visiting, they were like, wow, these guys can actually design, develop, and manufacture something. And so that really opened up the doors to future products for us.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Entirely South Financed. Other than the bank would actually let us borrow against our inventory and receivables. So we were able to use those monies, which weren't our monies, but at least they were up against the orders that were going to come. And again, apply that to actually purchasing the goods and doing marketing and all that other type of stuff.”
2021-12-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Spin Master/PAW Patrol: Ronnen Harary · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT